The Solidarity for African Womens Right's (SOAWR)
is a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations
working across 33 countries.
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa
Maputo Protocol
The Protocol offers significant potential to guarantee the rights of women, but in order to come into force it needed to be ratified by at least 15 countries.
On 26 October 2005 the Protocol received its 15th ratification, meaning the Protocol entered into force on 25 November 2005.
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Download the Journal It’s the 20th Anniversary of the SOAWR Coalition! In September 2004, several women’s rights organisations in Africa formally came together in solidarity to advocate for the adoption,
Following the SOAWR Coalition’s ratification and advocacy mission on the 25th of June 2025, the Government of the Central African Republic (CAR) deposited the instrument of ratification for the Maputo Protocol on the 29th of July 2025, making CAR the 46th African Union member state to do so.
Today, on 11 July 2025, we mark 22 years since the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in
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